Yesterday I drove out to Oberlin, about a half hour outside of Cleveland to go to a book signing for Richard Koloda, a pal that just had his first book published, a book on the life and times of free jazz saxophone pioneer, Albert Ayler.
The book is called "Holy Ghost: The Life And Death Of Free Jazz Pioneer Albert Ayler" and is published by Jawbone press. You can pick up a copy at Amazon and finer book and record stores everywhere. Here is a link to it on Amazon, where you can read the detailed positive reviews:
https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Ghost-Death-Pioneer-Albert/dp/1911036939
Albert Ayler was from our home town of Cleveland, Ohio and had a pretty controversial career and life, which ended in 1970 with his body tied to a jukebox and sinking to the bottom of the East River in New York City.
Certainly someone who was ahead of his time, Ayler proved to have an influence on many musicians in Jazz and Rock alike. While he may not have achieved the success and recognition of people like John Coltrane, he left a lasting impression in his own right.
The author told some great anecdotes and talked about the process of writing a book for two decades(!)
Afterwards, Noah Sherman and Abel Cecchi, some music students from Oberlin College performed a few pieces on trombone, percussion and piano. Here I captured a Coltrane piece, an original and a Duke Ellington number, which probably gets cut short.
Perhaps I'll do a book review... But I've never done a book review before, so we'll see if I can even attempt such a thing.
Thanks for reading... Stay jazzy!
▶️ 3Speak
